Staff



(No Model.)

' J. H. WAGSTAF'F.

INDEX.

No. 285,531. Patent ed Sept. 25, 1883.

WITNESSES: INVBNTOR;

I j yww/a I BY ATTORNEYS.

N. PETERS. Phtwuho nphcr, Wnhmgwn. D. c'

UNiTED STATES PATENT OFFIcE.

JOHN H. \VAGSTAFF, OF ST. JOHN, NE\V BRUNSYVI CK, CANADA.

INDEX.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters. Patent No. 285,531,.datedSeptember 25, 1883.

Application filed September 24, 1881. I (No model.) Patented in CanadaMay 8, 1882, No. 14,750; extended December 26, 1882,

\ No. 16,023, and extended December 27, 1882, No. 16,024.

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that'l, JOHN HEARLE W AG- STAFF, of the city of St. John,Province of New Brunswick, Canada, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Indexes, fully described and illustrated in thefollowing specification and accompanying drawing, forming a part of thesame.

It is the object of the invention to produce a simple, compact, andcomprehensive index, in which the names or subjects to be referred toshall be arranged in such order that little space will be wasted andlittle time required to find the reference.

To that end the invention consists in an index the pages of which areprovided with exposed generic references and with the letters of thealphabet arranged in horizontal rows which terminate a sufficientdistance from the right-hand edges of the pages to leave a margin ofproper width to receive an ordinary name or title, said pages being alsodivided into vertical columns corresponding with the letters in saidrows, all of which will be hereinafteriullycxplained and particularlypointed out.

By reference to the accompanying drawing, which shows one page of anindex embodying the present invention, its construction and the mannerin which it is used can be readily understood.

The leaves of the index are cut away, or stepped or tagged in the usualmanner, so as to provide exposed portions, upon which are placed thegeneric references, which in this case are shown as the initial lettersof the surnames of the persons to be referred to. Other genericreferences would, however, do just as row at the top will usually befound all that is desirable. The pages, which are preferably ruledhorizontally in the usual manner, are

ing.

At a point near the top-of each page.

provided with vertical lines, by which they are divided into columnscorresponding to the letters in the horizontal row.

The purpose of the arrangement ofv letters and ruling just described canbe best understood by an explanation of the manner in which this indexis kept and used. To make this explanation, let it be supposed that itis desired to index the names of John Bain and Bradley Bros. The firststep will be to find the, page devoted to names and titles commencingwith B, and this will be readily done by the aid of the exposed genericreference. Opening the index at this page, the word Bain will be enteredwith its initial letter in the column directly beneath the letter A (thesecond letter in the word Bain) in the horizontal alphabet, and the wordBradley will be entered in like manner, with its initial letters in thecolumn below R, and so 011 with other names and titles, each name ortitle being entered so that its first letter will be in the verticalcolumn corresponding to its second letter, all as clearly shown in thedraw- If it is desired to refer to the word Black, for example, theindex will be opened at the page devoted to names and titles coinmencingwith the letter FB, and the searcher will find the letter L in thehorizontal row of letters, and then look down its vertical column untilthe desired name is found.

The necessity for having the horizontal lines of letters terminate atsome distance from the right-hand edge ofthe leaves will be quiteapparent from the foregoing, as without the margin thus provided therewould be no space in which to enter a name or title in which the secondletter was one of the last of the alphabet. 1

The term alphabet as herein used is to be understood as meaningsubstantially the whole alphabet. Some of the letters may be omitted, asthey occur in names so rarely as to be of no especial consequence.

WVhen the pages of the index are quite nar- 9 5 IOO What I claim'isvided into vertical columns corresponding with An index the pages ofwhich are provided the letters in said rows, substantially as de- 10with exposed generic references, and with the scribed. letters of thealphabet arranged in horizontal T T 5 rows which terminate asufficientdistance H vi AGSTAFF' from the right-hand edges of the pages to leaveVitnesses: margins of proper width to receive an ordi- J AMES '1.GRAHAM, nary name or title said pages being also di- 0. SEDG-WIOK.

